Steelers putting NFL's new kickoff rule to test with officials on site at training camp

If television sets in coaching staff offices are hooked up to the Nielsen measurements, the Hall of Fame Game on Thursday night between Houston and Chicago is guaranteed to be a ratings bonanza.

“It will be the most watched Hall of Fame Game in the history of NFL football,” Steelers special teams coach Danny Smith predicted.

The interest has little to do with what will take place on scrimmage plays. Instead, head coaches and those like Smith in charge of special teams will tune in to see the first implementation of the league’s new kickoff rules.

The Hall of Fame Game marked the litmus test for one of the biggest NFL rules changes in decades. To increase the number of returns and reduce injuries, NFL owners adopted a radical change to the play in March.

Although the ball will continue to be kicked from the 35-yard line, the kicker is the only player on either team who will be stationed on that side of midfield.

Ten players from the coverage team will stand with one foot on the receiving team’s 40-yard line. The receiving team will have at least nine players stationed in a 5-yard setup zone from the 30-35. The remaining two players will line up in the landing zone from the 20-yard line to the goal line.

Once the ball leaves the kicker’s foot, the other players on the field cannot move until the ball lands within the 20-yard landing zone or is touched by one of the returners.

Beyond that, coaches are prepared for scenarios to unfold that an MIT mathematician couldn’t calculate.

“I think anybody who has said they have a handle on it is probably lying or naive,” coach Mike Tomlin said earlier in training camp. “There’s no video. All we have is words on a page.”

That will change Thursday. And, like his counterparts, Tomlin will be watching intently.

“I think that’s the component that makes it exciting,” he said. “There is going to be some anxiety among my peers regarding these concepts until we get some video on it. … I’ll be looking at the EA Sports game when it comes out to see what it looks like.”

The rule is a hybrid of what the XFL used before its merger with the USFL and comes on the heels of a season in which NFL kickoffs were returned a record-low 21.8% of the time. In the Super Bowl, none of the 13 kickoffs was returned, with 12 sailing out of the end zone.

“In my 11 years, we haven’t had a rule as dynamic as this,” said Brad Allen, an NFL referee whose crew has officiated Steelers practice this week. “If you look at the elements we had before, very few are still there.”

To encourage return attempts, the receiving team will get field position at the 30 instead of the 25 on any ball kicked out of the end zone. Kickoffs that fall short of the landing zone or go out of bounds will provide field position at the 40, but for any kick that drops in the landing zone, rolls into the end zone and is downed, placement will be at the 20.

“It’s a challenge, and I love it,” Smith said. “Players have really taken to it.”

The Steelers waited until game officials arrived in training camp this week to begin putting the new rule to practical use. Tomlin devoted two special teams Thursday periods to kickoffs: one designed around coverage, the other on returns.

Smith has experimented using defensive linemen on his kickoff units.

“We took the distance and speed out of it and all that running,” he said. “In a 5-yard (setup) area, who is the best in the game of football at getting off blocks? Defensive linemen do it for a living. Linebackers do it for a living. Tight ends do it on their releases.”

Tomlin is open to anything that works.

“We’ve got all our cards on the table in regards to that,” he said. “I think we’re all somewhat stepping into uncharted territory, so it’s probably prudent to cast a big net in terms of personnel.”

The way the ball is kicked off also is up for debate.

In organized team activities, kicker Matthew Wright often would place the ball on the ground horizontally and boot a line drive into the landing zone.

Wright used that same approach in one team period Thursday. Veteran kicker Chris Boswell, however, took the more traditional approach. He propped the ball on a tee and practiced lofting the ball inside the landing zone.

“It’s all strategy with the kickers and where they place the ball,” Smith said. “Now, there is a specific zone you must get that into. The target has changed, but the approach hasn’t. We’ll perfect that as it goes.”